


The Changeling Princess

by Chibifukurou



Category: Sleeping Beauty (1959), Twisted Princess (Disney Fanart)
Genre: Gen, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 02:31:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibifukurou/pseuds/Chibifukurou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There once lived a King and a Queen who were in deep sorrow, for they had no children. They tried every curative treatment and holy pilgrimage that the castle's healers could suggest. It was all to no avail.</p><p>Then a fairy came to them with the answer to their despair. She was taller than a giant from the East, with a cloak as dark as midnight, and two horns like those of the great dragons of the West. Her skin was the shade of the palest moonlight, and the fires of Underhill shone from her eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Changeling Princess

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Malkontent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malkontent/gifts).



> A huge thank you to Chimerari for taking on this story last minute

There once lived a King and a Queen who were in deep sorrow, for they had no children. They tried every curative treatment and holy pilgrimage that the castle's healers could suggest. It was all to no avail.

Then a fairy came to them with the answer to their despair. She was taller than a giant from the East, with a cloak as dark as midnight, and two horns like those of the great dragons of the West. Her skin was the shade of the palest moonlight, and the fires of Underhill shone from her eyes.

Surely had the King and Queen not been in such despair, they would never have given such a creature leave for an audience. Alas, they were so overcome by grief that they did not stop to seek the advice of the fairy tribes that had guarded the royal line of Rath, since the day that the King's forefathers had gained the throne.

Instead they welcomed their dark guest with open arms. And so it was that the dark fairy, Maleficent gained sway over the great Kingdom. The Kingdom fell into great darkness and sorrow as the dark fairies preyed upon the Rath's subjects.

It became so that one could not walk from one end of their village to the other without great peril. For if a person stepped on the wrong stone, or walked in shadows, they would disappear into the Underhill. Always there would be something left in the person's place so that their loved ones would know they had been taken.

While in the Kingdom of Rath, despair had begun to spring into full bloom, at the castle the King and Queen had never been happier. For the Queen had grown full with child. Maleficent had kept her word.

On the day of Aurora's Christening, her light fairy guardians came to the castle to bestow their blessings on the newest heir to the throne. Each of the seven guardian fairies was presented with a golden plate and jewel encrusted utensils.

The very same place settings that they had eaten off of at Aurora's father's Christening and his father's before him. So the fairy's ate and made merry, sensing nothing wrong.

But the price that Maleficent had asked, was far higher than anyone besides the King and Queen knew. Barely had the party begun when each of the fairies fell into a deep sleep.

The Lords and Ladies of the court cried out in shock and rushed to help the guardians, but the King and Queen would not hear of it. Instead they had the fairies locked away in a high tower surrounded by old magic and a tall bramble hedge.

Princess Aurora was the first Royal baby in a thousand years to gain no blessings from her fairy guardians. She was not gifted with unnatural beauty or long life. Instead she was as plain and unmarked by magic as the most common of girls. This would turn out to be her salvation.

# # #

In past generations, the princess would have been forced to spend time inside learning etiquette and decorum. But in these dark times, everyone was too busy fighting over the scraps of magic and trying to find a way to keep their position in a viper's nest where one wrong move got a person whisked away to the Underhill.

Only the King and Queen remained safe from Maleficent's wrath, kept safe and biddable by the deal they had struck. As they had agreed with the dark fairy, she had taken away their sorrow at the thought of never having a child. Without the sorrow, they rarely even remembered they had a child.

And so it came to pass that Aurora grew up spending as much time in the woods around the castle as she spent inside its walls. She had a gentle soul and found it easier to spend her times nursing injured forest animals rather than deal with the increasing darkness of her family's court.

She wondered the woods, and called herself Briar Rose. Her cheeks grew chapped, her skin dark, and her hair turned into a tangled muddy mess for there was no magic to keep her beautiful and untouched by the world around her. The townsfolk began to call her by a dark name. The Changeling Princess.

As the stories about the Princess spread to other kingdoms, they were twisted and changed. Soon the Changeling Princess wasn't the victim of a dark fairy, but the cause of all the dark magic that had befallen the once great Kingdom of Rath.

 # # #

To the West there resided another Kingdom. It was ruled by a King who had once been very close to the King of Rath. When they were young, they planned to wed their children to each other.

This had not come to pass. While the King of Rath had still still childless, Prince Phillip had been betrothed to a princess from another Kingdom.

Now, Prince Phillip's father saw a way to make up for the lost opportunity. If his son was to kill the Changeling Princess and rescue the Kingdom of Rath, then they would be able to rule over three kingdoms.

It seemed the perfect solution. So the king dispatched his son to kill the Princess.

# # #

Briar Rose danced among the trees. Her voice was sweet and clear as she sang the birds from the trees. An old grandfather owl watched the joyous preceding with quiet dignity. He had been one of the Princess' first patients and had watched over her faithfully since.

It was his screech that warned Briar that she was no longer alone in the wood. The warning came too late, as it was followed up with a death rattle. Prince Phillip flicked the bird's blood off of his blade with contempt.

Briar did not know what this strange man wanted, but she could see the blood that dripped down from his blade and the body of her dear owl laying still at his feet. She did not wait to see why the man had come.

She turned and ran. Prince Phillip ran after her, his longer legs and tough leather boots allowed him to out-pace her. His sword nicked at the back of her dress, leaving the garment in tatters. In torment and terror, Briar ran for the tower where the fairies were held. She knew well that this was a place where none of her father's nobels dared to tread. Prince Phillip did not know what lay in the tower, and he did not stop his pursuit.

He caught her just as she reached the briar hedge. His sword cut her down and she fell into the briars. Her eyes were gouged out, and her body sliced open in a dozen places. She would have died, save for the fact that it was her birth that had been the catalyst for her parent's deal with Maleficent.

As her blood poured out onto the tower and she breathed out her last breath, Maleficent's contract with her parents was broken.

The magic sought out the nearest host, and sunk itself into Prince Phillip. Taking over his body, it walked him into the castle to cleanse the dark magic. Maleficent's anguished screams shook the castle as her magic turned on her and dragged her into the Underhill.

That was not the end of the story, though. For the Kings of Rath had signed a much older and more binding blood pact with the fairies of light. With her life's blood Briar fulfilled this contract. The light fairies were woken from their slumber and came to fulfill their end of the pact.

Each heir of Rath except for Aurora was given a boon on the day of their Christening. Now, baptized in blood instead of water, Aurora finally received her own blessing. It was one simple sentence 'She shall not die.'

With those words Princess Aurora's fate was sealed. She did not return to life, but neither did she die.

Forevermore the Changeling Princess guarded the woods around the Castle of Rath.  At her side staid her trusty owl, forever caught with her in the moment between life and death.

The King and Queen had another child, this one not tainted by dark magic, but there were no fairies in attendance at this child's christening. Nor were there fairies at any other christening.

For the blood pact with the fairies lived on in Princess Aurora, the Kingdom's once and forever heir.

And so the stories of the dark fairy Maleficent and the Princess Aurora passed into legend and were forgotten.


End file.
